NYC03LA038 · Cessna 150F
Cessna 150F · Accident: on ground/water collision with object during takeoff
From Crestline, OH (no airport) to Mansfield Lahm Regional Airport (MFD)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC03LA038
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Cessna 150F
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 150
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N8555G
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Crestline, OH (no airport)To Mansfield Lahm Regional Airport (MFD), Mansfield, OH
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Takeoff · roll/run
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- On ground/water collision with object
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Unsuitable terrain or takeoff/landing/taxi area, used
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
After a 2 hour flight the engine lost total power, and the pilot performed a forced landing to a plowed snow covered farm field, about 9 miles east of the destination airport. The pilot proceeded by ground transportation to the airport, where he purchased fuel. Upon returning to the airplane, the pilot added the fuel to the left and right wing tanks, and a mechanic inspected the airplane. The pilot then elected to attempt a takeoff from the field. During the takeoff roll, the left wing struck a tree, and the takeoff was aborted. Review of a videotape, taken by an Ohio State Highway Patrol officer, the airplane was positioned on a snow-covered field with the engine running. The field also had high windrows and tall grass. Engine power was then applied, and the airplane began its takeoff roll. As the airplane proceeded away from the camera, it neared a tree line, and veered right. A large white cloud was then observed, and the airplane disappeared from the sight of the camera. The officer drove towards the white cloud, and observed the airplane at rest, with its occupants walking around the fuselage. Also noted on the video was a lone small tree growing in the field.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper decision to takeoff from unsuitable terrain. A factor related to the accident was the plowed, snow covered field.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC03LA038
- Event ID
- 20030127X00109
- Case number
- NYC03LA038
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 78194a479622edb6c2a04ca21817ef33d50db788e70c21740b5fc501fd2ca73f; retrieved 2026-09-22T09:38:50.960Z.